


Finally Happy

by AllisonDiamond



Category: Iron Man - All Media Types, Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Child Neglect, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Gen, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, M/M, More like a Hopeful Ending, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Pre-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Time Skips, anything else to tag?, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-23
Updated: 2017-05-23
Packaged: 2018-11-04 06:14:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10985049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllisonDiamond/pseuds/AllisonDiamond
Summary: As Tony grows, he changes, becoming someone better because he knows he has a soulmate out there who will never, ever throw him aside.





	Finally Happy

Tony is four years old when his mark appears. 

It’s a shooting star with a lighting bolt in the middle. He cherishes it, hoping that his soulmate does, too. 

When he tries to show his mom and dad, they are too busy to pay attention to him, so he sits in a corner, and says, “I know you’ll love me.”

That night, he falls asleep, feeling happier than he has ever felt before.

_** * ** _

At six years old, Tony is a bright boy, already building his first robot. He names it _Bolt_ after his soulmate. He hopes that his soulmate will like it as much as he does.

Bolt doesn't survive long. He malfunctions shortly and Tony cries _fearing_ that because his first robot and his gift to his soulmate is destroyed that means his soulmate will be disappointed with him.

But he still hopes that doesn't mean a thing. His soulmate will love him regardless if his first gift has failed. 

Because his soulmate will never abandon him, not like how everyone in his life has done.

**_ * _ **

Tony gets a breakthrough at his tenth birthday. He is sitting around eating cake with Jarvis when his hands start to tingle.

“Master Tony, are you alright?” Jarvis always gives him love when none else would.

“Yeah,” he replies, smiling brightly.

He places his cake aside and stares at his arm.

_I remembered all of it._

He has a very thoughtful soulmate, he reasons with himself. What will they talk about that makes his soulmate so thoughtful? He wonders about the numerous possibilities, and for the first time in his life, that thought doesn't make him cry.

**_ * _ **

Tony’s face gets shoved in the mud, but he doesn't cry, because one day, his soulmate will come and drag him away from this life.

He is twelve when he _feels_ anger pulsing through his mark. He smiles, knowing that his soulmate cares for him, and would never let him suffer like this again.

“I can’t wait to meet you,” he says, as the group of boys shove his face further down into the mud.

**_ * _ **

Tony is sixteen when he thinks his life has just taken the turn for the best.

He has gotten into the college of his dreams. He doesn't mind that he is younger than most of the students there. He is excited to be finally be somewhere he fits in.

He even has his first college girlfriend. She is a bit older than him, but she is sweet on him, and makes him feel special.

She loves him like no other does.

He knows they can never be together. He has a soulmate, and he is sure she has one, too, but for now, they have each other, and that is all that matters.

**_ * _ **

Tony is eighteen when he has his heart broken for the first time.

His girlfriend _Jen_ has met her soulmate and leaves him for her. 

Even though, they promise to be only with each other for the moment; it hurts more than Howard’s worse rejection.

“I’m sorry, Tony,” she says in that sweet voice of hers. “I’ll always cherish what we have. But being with her is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced in my life.”

He smiles. “It’s okay. Go be with her!” he cheers her on, as his heart breaks.

That’s the last time he smiles.

**_ * _ **

Tony is twenty when he meets James Rhodes.

He has just graduated with his PHD handed to him early because of his brilliance, not because of his name. 

Howard and his mom promise to take him out to a fancy dinner. He knows he shouldn't read too much into it but he couldn't help it.

His parents are finally going to be there for him.

Expect they never show up.

Instead, he ends up eating dinner by himself when this nice young, attractive guy joins him.

He learns that the guy is in the U.S Air Force and Tony knows that they are going to best friends.

He later learns that his friend is one James Rhodes.

For the first time in his life, Tony has a real friend.

**_ * _ **

Twenty-one is when Tony breaks.

He learns of his parents’ death through the mainstream media _after_ his parents decide to take a break from Tony. 

He never ever thought that his parents might die, not this soon, not after they never get to connect.

He should have done more. Try to establish a better relationship with them. Instead, he moves away to college to drown his problems away, and the funny thing is, they were trying to get away from him too.

His parents are gone.

They are no more.

And it’s all his fault.

He should have tried to be the son they wanted instead of being the disappointment he really is.

He soon loses the will to think after it really sinks in. Instead, he sits back, numb, and lost, and says, “I wish you were with me.”

**_ * _ **

Tony is twenty-one when his dreams of doing something good and worthwhile are crushed, andinstead he becomes the CEO of Stark Industries.

Twenty-one is also the year Tony starts to sleep around, trying to drown his parents’ death out  from his mind.

He fucks and lets anyone fuck him _hoping_ that it will take away the pain.

It never does.

He wishes that his soulmate were with him instead talking to him, holding him, comforting him. But they aren’t and Tony settles for the next best thing: booze and sex.

**_ * _ **

Tony is twenty-three when Obi takes him under his wing and makes him the most successful CEO in history.

Obi is also the one to let Tony use his talents to build hundreds of dangerous weapons all shipped to the armed forces.

Tony honestly believes he is doing a good thing because aren’t the armed forces suppose to protect people? Plus, Obi would ever let him do anything wrong. He won’t. Obi is like the father he has never gotten to know his entire life.

“I’m doing the right thing,” he says, trying to convince himself when it feels wrong. “Aren’t I?” He stares at his mark and feels nothing.

**_ * _ **

Twenty-five is when Tony first met Pepper.

She is a feisty twenty-two years old intern for the Stark’s industries.

Tony decides he likes her after all.

He wonders if she might be soulmate after all? He has never spoken to her really, or even acknowledged her, but she seems like someone Tony would be glad to call his soulmate.

That thought leaves him when he sees her mark isn’t the shooting mark with the lighting bolt in the middle. 

She isn’t his soulmate.

He still believes his soulmate is out there, even if they haven't made themselves known yet.

**_ * _ **

Tony is finally awaken when he is thirty.

His whole life has been a joke. Obi isn’t who he says he is.His weapons aren’t used to protect and save lives.

Obi has sold him to a terrorist group: _The Ten Rings_. The one man he thought he could look up to now that Jarvis is gone has betrayed and hurt him worse than Howard could have ever done.

Why doesn’t anyone like him? Is he that bad?

It doesn't matter. 

This is his life.

He wants to live, so he fights, and never goes down, even when they cut his chest open, leaving him to die in the middle of the desert.

He doesn't give him hope when his soulmate never comes to rescue him.

He fights and builds a electromagnet with the scarp pieces of the weapons and places it to cover up the hole on his chest.

That day he finally realizes how truly alone he really is and has always been.

He has no one but himself who he can really trust.

**_ * _ **

At thirty-six, Iron Man is created, six months after he returns from the desert.

He couldn't ignore any of the bad things in the world anymore. So, he creates this armor suit, and swears to protect those who can’t.

He doesn't want anyone to ever go through anything like he has went through.

**_ * _ **

Thirty-seven is when he finally sees Pepper for the brilliant woman she is.

It is also the first time he realizes that he finally has the chance to love again.

He starts dating Pepper and everything seems to be right with the world.

He is Iron Man. He saves people. He has Pepper, _J_ , Rhodes, and his robots in his life. What else can he ask for?

Not for his frickin’ soulmate.

They are horrible and Tony wants nothing to do with them.

**_ * _ **

Tony is thirty-nine when he finally meets his hero: Captain America.

Steve Rogers is everything Howard says he is: a hero in every sense of the word.

And he sees beneath Tony and calls him out for being the coward he really is.

That hurts because Iron Man is his escape from _that_ place, his life, and everything bad in between.

He really is the arrogant bastard Steve believes he is.

**_ * _ **

Ultron is a disaster that Tony creates when he is a few months shy of forty-three. Maybe he created it because Pepper has broken up with him. Maybe it"s because he still is the selfish bastard that he has always been.

It doesn't matter what his reasons are; he shouldn't have created Ultron.

He admits that freely.

But the whole world looks at him as if he is a monster. He _isn't_ one, he wants to say. How is he supposed to know Ultron will be that evil?

He doesn’t but that doesn't change the fact that all those innocent people have died by _his_ hands. Had their homes destroyed because of him.

How can he forget that Pietro Maximoff has died because of him?

He can’t so he pushes it down and pretends to be alright when he is breaking.

**_ * _ **

Tony has had enough of superheroes and the Avengers at age forty-five.

He tries to convince Steve that _they_ shouldn't be given this much power, but Steve doesn't agree with him, and instead wants to save his friend. _Barnes._

The Avengers spilt up into Team Iron Man and Team Captain America and the stupid war begins.

Thousands are killed. Homes are destroyed. All because Rogers and he can’t come to a neutral agreement that works best for the both of them.

**_ * _ **

It is near the end of the war when he finally learns of his parents’ death. _Barnes,_ the man Rogers is fighting for — he has killed Tony’s parents.

Tony doesn't care if he hasn't been in control of his mind when he killed Tony’s parents. 

He has killed Tony’s parents and that is all that really matters.

He sees red and only wants to kill the man, and when he rips the man’s metallic hand off his body, he doesn't care until he sees the faded mark on his _stump_.

No, it couldn't be.

He stares blankly and Rogers takes that as his cue and beats his shield into Tony’s chest _leaving_ Tony for dead, and taking Barnes with him, his one and only soulmate.

He then remembers that when he asked Barnes if he remembers killing his parents, Barnes has said, “I remembered all of it.”

Barnes is really his soulmate.

His life has been a whole joke.

**_ * _ **

Tony spends his forty-seventh birthday ignoring Rogers' pleas for them to make up.

Instead, he spends that time mentoring the kid. Peter Parker also known as Spiderman.

He sees himself in Peter and he doesn't want thekid to become like him. So, he tries to tell him how to be a better superhero.

Peter ends up being a delight in his lifeHe is such a smart and optimistic kid that it makes Tony worry what will happen to him when he ends up fighting his first big villain.

He knows that Peter is great and he will succeed.

He trains Peter after Peter refuses to quit and ends up having a good time with Peter’s aunt — it is a short-lived affair.

So, it isn’t all that bad.

**_ * _ **

Then Barnes has to show up and ruins things.

“What do you want?” he says bitterly.

“Stark, we need to talk,” he says emotionless. 

“No,” he says and walks away.

“Please. I’m so sorry for what Stevie and I’ve done to you. Please let’s just talk, Star—Tony.” He looks at him with this vulnerable look and Tony finds himself caving.

“Fine, talk.”

And talk, they do.

It doesn't make everything better but it helps. Tony learns of Bucky’s life, how Hydra controls him, how Hydra gets rid of his mark, and somehow, someway, he begins to trust the man.

The man has killed his parents, ruined his life, but Tony still forgives him, because how could he not?

This is the man he has been dying to meet his entire life, and the little boy in him still hopes that this man, his soulmate — _Barnes_ — will end up saving him from his tragic life.

**_ * _ **

It still takes _years_ before he is finally comfortable with letting Barnes in his life completely.

And he is glad he did.

Bar—Bucky is surprisedly just as broken as him, even more so, and Tony wants to fix that.

So he tries to.

Bucky and him have a history that may never be completely fixed, but maybe in time, he believes they could finally move past some of the awful things, and connect and share the bond they are supposed to have between them.

Because if two broken souls can’t find each other? What else can?

**_ * _ **

Today _at_ age fifty is Tony Stark’s first date with his soulmate.

He is nervous, happy, and excited regardless of the fact his soulmate _is not_ the person he imagined having in his life.

Bucky is still a wonderful man; a man Tony is glad he has taken the time to get to know better.

True happiness isn’t possible for them, but he believes that he and Bucky can cross somewhere along that road at some point in their lives.

“Doll, are you finished dollin’ up?”

“You wouldn't like me when I’m at my natural,” he says, as he smiles at the happy man staring back at him in the mirror. He is a new man — a happy, less stressful one — and he is glad it shows.

“I’m sure I’ll love you all the same, doll.”

“I’m sure you won’t,” he replies, as he goes to Bucky.

“I’ve seen you at your worst, darlin’.” Bucky looks at him in awe when he walks in and slings his hands around him. “But I’ve never seen you this _handsome_.”

“Please, I’m blushing.”

Bucky laughs and they walk away heading into a future, which Tony hopes is a good one, because if it isn’t, he doesn’t think he will be able to survive.

“I’ll never hurt you, Tony,” Bucky reminds him.

“I know you won’t.”

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi on [tumblr](http://neenabthurman.tumblr.com)


End file.
